Canada forward Nathan MacKinnon, left, celebrates his game-winning goal with teammates Sam Reinhart, centre, and Macklin Celebrini during their Olympic semi-final.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Coming into the Olympics, everyone was comfortable with their Canadian roster rankings. Connor McDavid first. Nathan MacKinnon second. Cale Makar third.
Sidney Crosby is talismanic, but talismans aren’t always going to beat two guys on the way to toward the net. The first three can and often do.
Over four games, there had been a slight reworking of that order. Sub Macklin Celebrini, 19, in for MacKinnon, 30, at least temporarily. It wasn’t just that the 19-year-old was getting major minutes on a line with McDavid. It was that something was wrong with MacKinnon.
Cameras appeared to catch him vomiting on the bench in the near miss against Czechia. He might also be injured in some undefined way.
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Everybody’s reputation can survive a down tournament, including at the Olympics. Everybody except a top-three player on the world’s most obsessed-over hockey team. Your completely-made-up ranking might not recover from that.
So over the course of two remarkable minutes on Friday night, MacKinnon fixed that.
With the game tied, now playing on that top McDavid/Celebrini line, MacKinnon first tapped a shot that rolled up the stick of Finland goalie Juuse Saros like a laser-guided puck, and slid off the top of it. An unforgettable goal had it gone in. If Finland had gone on to win, that would have been the one that got away.
Juuse Saros of Team Finland gives up the game-winning goal to Nathan MacKinnon in the third period on Friday in Milan.Pool/Getty Images
But it was the move that followed immediately after that sets MacKinnon apart. He headed into the corner after the loose puck. Niko Mikkola followed him in there.
MacKinnon jerked on Mikkola’s stick. Mikkola couldn’t resist the bait, allowing his lumber to be pulled up into MacKinnon’s face.
The guy who’s playing through injury so bad he can’t practise, as well as puking between shifts, reacted with dainty dismay. He put an offended hand to his face so that the referee wouldn’t think Mikkola had missed. It was a small sell job, but a professional sell job. Canada had a high-sticking penalty with just over two minutes to go.
Cooper turns to his grinders as Canada beats Finland
MacKinnon completed his nocturne a minute later by corkscrewing a shortened-up slapshot past Saros. That was the game, 3-2.
At the news conference that followed, head coach Jon Cooper held court, while MacKinnon stared so intently at a spot directly in front of him that it looked like he was nodding off.
“Obviously happy that one squeaked in,” said MacKinnon. “Yeah, great pass.”
“Actually, I’ll step in,” said Cooper, yanking the metaphoric mic out of MacKinnon’s hand. “He got rewarded for the wall battle right before that. … He’s probably not giving himself enough credit.”
MacKinnon – /stare /stare /stare.
You think you have focus? If MacKinnon looks hard enough at the night sky, he can name all the moons of Jupiter and point them out. This guy probably looks this way in cabs and at breakfast.
Canada loves to talk about its depth. All the players said it after barely beating Czechia in the quarters, and said it again after slightly less barely beating the Finns.
Nathan MacKinnon celebrates his winning goal against Finland win the Canadian fans in Milan on Friday.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
But there is no team anywhere, playing anything, that doesn’t live and die with its stars. As good as they may be, you can’t expect the Thomas Harleys and Seth Jarvises of the world to win gold medals for you. That’s not their job.
Someone asked Drew Doughty about Celebrini after the game. He noted that it was amazing someone was so good, so young.
Weren’t you the youngest Canadian player once upon a time?
“I didn’t play as good as him,” said Doughty.
You sure?
Doughty, getting irritated now: “Pretty positive.”
Don’t tell a guy who isn’t a superstar that he’s like a superstar, even in jest. They think they’re being mocked.
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MacKinnon is that guy, and it’s his job, though he’s only had half a chance to do it. He’s won a Stanley Cup. He’ll probably win another this year.
But you don’t get into the pantheon until you get top billing in winning the biggest international trophies. That’s why people don’t talk about Guy Lafleur the way they do about Bobby Orr.
MacKinnon’s Nova Scotia soulmate, Crosby, is already there. If this thing turns out, McDavid will be, too. He is the undoubted alpha of this Canada team. Celebrini may also get his international badge long before he has the freedom to become a difference-maker in the NHL playoffs.
MacKinnon stepped up in a big way, scoring the game-winning goal late in the third period.JULIEN DE ROSA/Getty Images
It was MacKinnon (and, to a lesser extent, Makar) who had the most to lose and gain here.
This can still go wrong. Easily, based on what we’ve seen so far.
Can Canada continue this Houdini performance in the gold-medal game?
“Can’t do that again,” McDavid said softly, which is his way of yelling in public.
No gold, no golden reputations. As good as it’s been, as evidently talented, as resilient, nobody remembers any Canada team that comes second.
But assuming it can do it, a few guys are getting up on the wall.
With three minutes left in the biggest game of his international career (sorry, made-up NHL showcase), MacKinnon wasn’t in that group. Then he decided he wanted to be.